My startup: Crossies.com

On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 8:46 AM, Nicholas Leippe <nick at leippe.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 8:42 AM, Charles Curley
> <charlescurley at charlescurley.com> wrote:
> >
> > Now we get into copyright issues. Lending out your physical copy of a
> > book or DVD is perfectly legal. I'm not so sure about a ripped copy
> > sitting on someone else's server. It would depend on the license. But
> > renting it out might not be legal even if lending or copying was.
> > (Creative Commons Non-commercial license, e.g.) I am not a lawyer, and
> > don't want to get into those issues. Nor would I care to become an
> > RIAA/MPAA lawyer target.
> >
> > I expect our OP has looked into this issue.
> >
>> IANAL, but I imagine, so long as he holds the physical copies in
> escrow, he will have a similar sort of status as netflix. He will
> similarly have to negotiate the same sorts of distribution rights as
> netflix does, and will *have* to use DRM to get those rights. The
> content owners won't go for anything less--and even with that, are
> very hard to negotiate with. Some require large ($millions) down
> payments up front.
>>The challenge to be faced is that the studios are an oligopoly. Therefore,
you have very limited to no negotiating power with them. The studios will
maximize their profit and have the negotiating position to make it happen.
Then, you are also competing with Amazon, Netflix, Apple, etc, where the
competition is fierce and these guys can handle very slim profit margins
because they are also making money in other areas (selling products). You
get this squeezing effect happening where your profits get eaten away by
the competition lowering prices to get customers or your suppliers
maximizing profit (the studios). And that's if you're lucky and actually
get more than one studio in your offering.
Then, you throw in all the legal hassles and the costs you will have on the
legal side and you lose money. You might as well find a different business
idea in a better industry.
Here is an interesting read:
Why Johnny can't stream: How video copyright went insane
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/08/why-johnny-cant-stream-how-video-copyright-went-insane/